lip lit: grace: a memoir

The 2009 documentary The September Issue explored the creation of US Vogue’s biggest issue ever. The magazine’s creative director, Grace Coddington, was memorable as a measured counter to Anna Wintour, its enigmatic, ice queen editor. Sadly, the insight into Coddington’s character offered in Grace: A Memoir is far less endearing. The memoir was an opportunity to open her up and explore the depth of her experiences, but instead she ultimately comes across as overly blunt and oddly disconnected (from other people? From the reader? From the real world beyond fashion? All of these). For Coddington, fashion is the filter through which all of life must pass. And yet despite its all-consuming role, the passion one would expect for her craft is lacking in this recounting of her life and career.

For one thing, Coddington’s constant name-dropping is wearying. Why should we care that she thinks Julien d’Ys is among the greatest hair stylists she has worked with, unless she can also offer some amusing or interesting anecdote to support the mention of him? Her meandering recollections of Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss and Karl Lagerfeld are more easily forgiven, because these targets of her bald-faced gossip-mongering are themselves fascinating characters. The chapter on Anna Wintour was a missed chance to offer a deeper insight into their relationship. Instead, it’s an affectionate but somewhat bemused depiction of a difficult colleague – a different, but no less limited perspective than that shown in The September Issue.

If the book feels soulless, it is at least immensely readable. And it is beautifully produced, which is perhaps to be expected of a stylist’s memoirs, but is still a sadly uncommon occurrence in contemporary publishing. Coddington’s lovely little sketches of people and clothes are interspersed liberally throughout the text.

One of these expressive drawings (above) shows Coddington surrounded by her manicurists, of whom she writes:

My favourite bit of beauty pampering nowadays is my ‘mani-pedi’, the manicure and pedicure session I regularly indulge in at Think Pink, my local New York salon. The entire staff is Korean. And they love me. ‘Glace! Glace!’ they shout when I walk in. They used to like sitting me near the window so passersby could see me. Pedestrians looking in often came up to the glass. When they realised I couldn’t hear them, they mouthed things at me like, ‘I love The September Issue. I love your work.’ Because of all these interruptions, the therapists now discreetly seat me at the back so I won’t be disturbed.

This gives you a fairly accurate idea of the book’s tone – conversational, self-indulgent, unaware and occasionally tasteless. Coddington is unabashedly of another era, and with all the best intentions that can sometimes be awkward and challenging to read. Grace: A Memoir is interesting in the most vapid way, but for those who feed on fashion and pop culture, it hits a certain sweet spot.

Grace: A Memoir by Grace Coddington is published by Knopf

Veronica Sullivan is a writer and bookseller from Melbourne. She blogs here and tweets here.